Repentant Hands

Luke 18:9-14

Listening guide

Discussion questions

God's glory gives grit!

Mark 9:2-13

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Listening guide

Discussion questions

Sermon

Get to Work: Power for Work

Mark 1:35-45

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

40 A man with leprosy[a] came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

41 Jesus was indignant.[b] He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Listening guide

We need _______________ to do good work.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” 

Run Hard Rest Well “group norm is overload and exhaustion”.

Powerful work comes in part from ____________, ______________________, and _________________.

Nick Vujicic

God turns our _________________________ into power to work. 

Discussion questions

Sermon

I remember a phase when I went overboard tracking tasks. I had something like 700 tasks in this task manager. I felt pretty exhausted and powerless. There was no way I could get that all done.

I’m not the only one.

After finishing her psychiatry residency, a young doctor was working at a New York City hospital. She was friends with a doctor who was a few years ahead of her and who was pregnant with her second child. “Do you know what I love most about being pregnant?” the older doctor said to her friend one day. “I love being pregnant because it’s the only time where I feel productive all the time. Even when I’m sleeping, I’m doing something!” It struck the young M.D. that her friend based her self-regard so completely on productivity that she seemed relieved to finally find a task she could do incessantly . She reflected, “For many of us, being productive and doing becomes . . . an attempt at redemption. That is, through our work, we try to build our worth, security, and meaning.” (Keller, Timothy. Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work (p. 226). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.)

That sounds a little ridiculous, but I know it’s true.

Talk to plenty of you. We feel drained. We feel empty. We feel powerless because we are looking to constantly work.

This is common. (We are often robbed of the power to do good work.) We need power to do good work.

Maybe like that doctor we get glimpses now and then to have the power to do all the work in our lives. I’ve felt that way lately. I think some of it has been coming off vacation. I look down at my to do list. Almost everything is done. That’s a great feeling.

That’s the promise today. To have this power all the time.

Adventure

Over the last few weeks, we’ve taken a look at the work we do.

First, we changed the story of our work. We heard the call of God. That is what moves us to work. 

Second, we found a partner for our work. Our work is meaningful and valuable with Jesus.

Third, we considered the people of our work. We work for ourselves, for family and friends, and for society at large.

The last thing we’re going to do, today, is the power for our work. I think in many ways, if you’ve got a better story for your work, a partner for your work, you know who you are working for, that is going to give you a lot of power. But let’s take a look just at the power for our work.

Let’s get the power for our work. Both the physical power and the spiritual power – power in our spirits.

Development

Jesus doesn’t provide any particularly stunning insights when it comes to a good way to gain the physical power to do our work. For example, no specific workout routine. No special diet. No special vitamins or health practices. Not that any of that stuff is unbibilical.

Here is one example of this. In the Bible, there was a man named Daniel. He was chosen to be part of the king’s court. He was specifically chosen because he ate a good diet and he was in good shape. Jesus recommends something even more basic.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

He “got up”, which means he had been asleep. He prayed. He rested. Three basic things: sleep, pray, and rest. And I don’t think it is a stretch to say, you need these three things for the power to do your work.

I know there is this sentiment out there, and maybe there is some anecdotal evidence of it, that young people are lazy. Who knows, maybe you think I’m lazy. I appreciate those of you who say, pastor, I’m not always sure what is going on, but you, work hard.

I want us as Christians to lead with this conviction. What is that conviction?

The group norm in America is overload and exhaustion. Brenda Jank from Run Hard Rest Well says that. “group norm is overload and exhaustion”. Ministry Impact • Run Hard. Rest Well.

So sleep, prayer, and rest are going to seem counter-cultural. If you are a person who rests well, it’s going to look radical. It’s going to look crazy. But that is the key to make you more effective. I’m fairly convinced that if you do them well, you’ll actually work well.

Some of you are probably saying, pastor, that doesn’t sound very spiritual. This is spiritual. This is biblical. Both science and the bible tell us sleep prayer rest.

For example, I’ve been reading Greg McKoewn’s Essentialism. He helps people focus on the things that are essential to their life. He spends this entire chapter on sleep He says that there is so much data that demonstrates the vast majority of us need about 8 hours of sleep.

Similarly, prayer. James says, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” If you want things to happen in life, pray. I can’t tell you how many of my problems are solved simply because of prayer. Let me address this last one. Rest.

I don’t know how you pray well if you don’t rest well. When God created the world, he rested on the 7th day. God worked, then he rested. That’s the rhythm of creation. We’ve got to follow it. When we refuse to, we violate creation.

We bring chaos and disorder into our lives.

Point: Powerful work comes in part from sleep, prayer, and rest. If Jesus rested and prayed, certainly you will need to.

I think we have to ask ourselves then, if this is true, why don’t we pray, rest, and sleep? Why do we keep trying to work? Again, I know some will say there is all kinds of laziness and sleep going on, but that’s not the norm. Why do we keep working? I think Jesus gives us some of the answer.

After rest, Jesus went back to work. He first came to someone with a skin disease. The infected person said, “if you’re willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus had a gut, visceral reaction. He cleaned him. Let’s dig into this for a second.

What we see on the surface here is that this man experienced something that was gut wrenching. He had a skin disease. It may have been something like our modern leprosy. Maybe much worse. What we don’t see, is that leprosy meant exclusion. (“Those whom the priest regards as having “leprosy” must announce their condition and remain outside the community (Lev 13:45–46). It is also true that in the time of Jesus leproi were forced to live outside of cities and were prohibited from having contact with others (see Josephus, J.W. 5.227; Ag. Ap. 1.281–282; 11Q19 XLVIII, 14–17)”

Remember, the ancient world was an incredibly collective society. I hope you can imagine what this meant. Without society, he couldn’t have a sense of identity. He couldn’t know who he was in the world. Without friends and family, he couldn’t have a sense of belonging. He couldn’t know where he fit in, where he belonged. Without work, he couldn’t have a sense of purpose in the world. He didn’t know what he was trying to do.

He experienced significant physical and emotional pain. That robbed him of the power to work and even to live. (Pain robs us of the power to work.)

He makes me think of a man named Nick Vujicic, an Australian man. He is about 30 now. He was born with tetra-amelia syndrome, which is a fancy way to say he has no arms or legs.

When he was 10, he was became depressed. He was bullied. He couldn’t do anything. He was excluded. He said he was so alone, he wanted to commit suicide. He wanted to see someone like him.

About 5 years ago, he met a baby named Daniel. Daniel was born just like he was, without any arms or legs. Nick said, “Not getting a miracle, I can be a miracle to Daniel ... an older brother of Daniel his whole life ... encourage him”. (Nick Vujicic NIck Vujicic - man without limbs shares the Bible verse that gave him purpose | ChristianToday Australia, accessed 02/05/2021)

Nick shows us something. Did you see how in verse 41 it says, “Jesus was indignant” or “Filled with compassion”.

He didn’t feel disgust. He didn’t feel shame. His guts churned. (Wade Johnston, A Path Strewn with Sinners, 13). He was this man’s miracle.

He was the only one who saw this situation for what it really is. He was the only who saw the pain for what it really was. He was the only who saw all the pain this man felt without identity, belonging, and purpose, and he felt it himself.

Nick can be Daniel’s brother but he can never take Daniel’s pain. Jesus cam be the brother who can take the pain himself. He took the pain and gave the man work, gave him life.   

I asked us, if powerful work comes from sleep, prayer, and rest, why do we keep working so hard? Just look at this! You say, if Jesus has taken away my pain, how can I not work?

If I have gone all the sudden from a man who has no place to belong to a person who has a place to belong. If I have gone from a man with no sense of identity to a man with a sense of identity. If I have gone from a man with no purpose to a man with purpose, how can I not work?

If you claim Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then you have to say, he has taken away my pain. I can see it all over his face. I can see it on his face on the cross. I can see it on the face of a man who had done nothing wrong and yet he experienced the incredible anguish of sin.

He was denied his miracle on the cross so that I could receive a miracle! He has made my pain power to work. God turns our pain into power to work.

I want you to notice something. The man in this story says, “if you are willing”. Sounds to me like it hurts. And yet Mark says that Jesus was the one who felt pain. Jesus was the one had that churning in his gut. God is the only one who takes seriously the amount of pain in this world.

I don’t know exactly how much you’re hurting. I don’t know how much physical pain you have. I don’t know who has offended you. I don’t know how lonely you feel. What has made you feel inadequate.

God won’t always take away that pain. But he takes away what our pain signifies. He takes away the death. He takes away the exclusion. He takes away the idea that we are defective, something less than normal.

That’s power to work.

Get to Work: For the Lord

Mark 1:21-34

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

Jesus Heals Many

29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

Listening guide

Mark 1:21-34 = Jesus works 

• for (to benefit) _________________________

• for (to benefit) ________________________

• for (to benefit) _________________________

Good work is work done well for three groups of people: ______________, ________________________ close to me, and ______________________________. 

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:22-24)  

We’re only going to work well for ourselves, family, and society if we’re _________________________________________. 

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58

Work for the Lord and you will work well for yourself, your family, and the world  

Discussion questions

Sermon

Do you recognize this?  

Even if you aren’t into the stock market, I would guess most of us have a sense of what it is. Now that I’ve said stock market, do you know what it is?  

It’s the stock chart, it’s the price chart if you will of a very significant stock of the week. That being, yes, GameStop.  

Despite the politics, the pandemic,  

People on Reddit and elsewhere got together and made the stock jump in value by 400% or 500% in one week.  

Biggest point the people are saying to the Wall Street elites, who are you working for?  

I’ve had a bunch of those wake up calls at times. People who have said to me, what about us? Are you actually serving us, these real people? And I know other people who are asking the same question.   

One man in particular (JS)  

Who am I working for? Not so much which employer, but in terms of working for myself, having a sense of satisfaction and pride in my work vs working for the people around me vs working for the benefit of society in general, he says, what am I really doing this for?  

Adventure 

We’ve watched Jesus get to work and we’ve asked ourselves the question, how are we supposed to work.  

• First week we said, “hear God’s call and get to work”. The most important thing to do good work in all of life is that we hear God’s call. We trust him and we follow him with our lives. Hugh Welchel said, “how do integrate our work and our faith in a way that is pleasing to God? First, we must rediscover that our primary vocation is the call to follow Jesus.”  

• Second week we said, “when we work with Jesus, then our work is worth it.” The path to valuable work in the world is not our own effort or success. The path to meaningful and valuable work is our partnership with God.  

This week we want to ask a very simple question. For whom do we work? Because whether it’s this GameStop fiasco, just losing focus on our job, or a redirect after 30 years of work, if we aren’t working for the right people, we aren’t going to do good work.  

Promise when you work for the right people you will do good work.  

Development 

One of the things I think that helps us understand the teaching today, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, is to remember this: the paragraph breaks and the headings in your Bible are not inspired. Sometimes they are helpful, sometimes they aren’t.  

If you look at verse 20 in Mark 1 and then verse 21, you realize Jesus called those 4 disciples we heard about 2 weeks ago, then went straight to work in Capernaum. There is basically no delay. What we are seeing then in the rest of Mark 1, the first work he does as a public teacher. It’s not like he called these disciples to follow him then took them away to school for 5 years to teach them. He called them and got right to work.  

This is the first work he does.  

There are three events all on the same day. Again, paragraph breaks and headings aren’t inspired. In verses 21-28, Jesus is in the synagogue. He drives a demon out of a man. Verse 29 says as soon as they left the synagogue. The same day. Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law. Remember, Simon was the name of Peter before Jesus renamed him. Then in verse 32, that very evening, whole crowds of sick people come and he healed them. This all happened on one day.  

You think, I feel busy sometimes. Talk about a lot to do.  

Little longer section but it shows Jesus at work so well. One thing we could talk about here would be how Jesus work let people recognize who he is. People saw him as a divine figure. Another thing would be the kind of king he is. He uses his power to heal. He is a healing and restoring king. I want us to ask this, who does Jesus work for? Who does Jesus benefit or help? Does he go and find kings? Does he find the poor? Is it Jews? What categories or kinds of people?  

The first thing Jesus does is drive a demon out of a man. I think we are rightly wowed by that authority and power. The people are too. So much that the focus is not on the man. The focus is on Jesus displaying who he is.  

The demon says, you are the Holy One of God. And the people say he is a new teaching – with authority.  

Jesus reveals who he is. This fits exactly with our spirit of expressive individualism. Just show yourself to be who you are. This is one reason why we work. Why people in general work. To have a sense of fulfilment. To be themselves. I asked someone one time, why did you switch jobs. The answer was something like, I needed a chance to grow, to be me.  

The first person Jesus works for is kind of himself. He works to express who he is.  

The second thing Jesus does is heal Peter’s mother in law. This is a little more straightforward. Jesus also serves the people closest to him relationally. He serves family and friends.  

And the last thing he does, he heals “all the sick and the demon-possessed". So he serves society and the community at large.  

We've got these three groups: Jesus works for himself. I really don’t think that is a bad thing to say. He works to show who he is or to be who he is. He also works for the people relationally closest to him and to society at large.  

He does all three of these things. And it really is good work. JRR Tolkein has this great little line that “the hands of the king are the hands of the healer, and thus shall the rightful king be known.” Jesus really does good work for specific groups of people.  

This is our first point today: Good work is work done well for three groups of people: myself, people relationally close to me, and society at large.  

This is right where what God says runs right into our lives. Start with this. One of the most common things I hear from people why they work is that they work to pay the bills. 

Is that wrong?  

If a person mostly works to pay the bills, they are taking care of the people relationally close to them. Family and maybe friends. Good.  

In my experience, those people are usually not satisfied with their jobs. They aren’t working to use all their gifts and skills and abilities. They also aren’t working to benefit society at large. 

Or this one. In a poll some years ago, 97% of young people said they wanted a job that would impact the world. (Hugh Welchel, How Then Should We Work,  

Good. That's fine. I’ve said that myself. Right up until the time where I realized my work broke almost as much as I fixed and I started to say, I don’t want to fix the world and rescue people, I just don’t want to break more stuff. I could be happy if I just don’t cause more problems. 

I’m not sure I’m going to have much success at changing the world.   

And there is always the example of the starving artist. I’m glad you get to do what you want. I’m glad you get to be who you want to be. What benefit are you providing for your friends and family? Or what about society at large?  

Who can do this?  

You might say to me, pastor, if I pick one of these things, isn’t that enough? If I can be myself, be who God made me to be, isn’t that good enough? Or if I can take care of my friends or family, isn’t that good enough? Or if I serve society, isn’t that good enough?  

One of the things that God makes clear is that we don’t just sin by doing things. A lot of sin is not doing what we should do. It’s a sin of omission, not just commission.  

Even people in the Bible failed to do what they should have done. One time David snuck into Saul’s camp. He took a spear and water jug from Saul (1 Samuel 26). He accused the soldiers of failing to do their job.  

One of the most shocking verses about work in the Bible comes from the apostle Paul. “22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:22-24)  

Realize what this is saying. Paul is telling slaves to work not just because their owner demands. That would be working for those people who are close to us. But he says, do it with all your heart – so do it for your own satisfaction – do it to be who God made you to be.  

You’ll never be right with your work if you say, I work for myself and that’s good enough. You can’t say, I’m working to pay the bills and that’s enough. Hear me clearly. I’m not saying, you shouldn’t work to pay the bills. You should work to pay the bills. But there will always be something missing if that is the only reason you are working.  

You've got to change your whole life. You’ve got to change all your work. You’ve got to work for yourself, for the people close to you, and for all of society. All of it.  

This is our second point for today. We’re only going to work well for ourselves, family, and society if we’re working for the Lord.  

So how do this? How do we work well for ourselves and family and society all at the same time because we work for the Lord?  

I think Jesus shows us when he heals so many people. I think Paul says it when he tells the slaves, “you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.” One of the best passages about our work comes from Paul in another place.  

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul talks about our resurrection bodies. He says after the end of all things, we will be raised with a glorious body. And the last thing he says is, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) Paul says, “give yourselves full to the work of the Lord because your labor is not in vain”. Why did Paul says that?  

Because Jesus did not just die for our sins. He also rose for our life!  

He rose so that at least a little bit, some of the time, somewhat, you win in your work over sin, death, and the devil.  

He rose so that your work at least sometimes lasts.  

He rose so that at least some of the time, you would see a little bit get done. For yourself, for your friends and your family, and for society.  I think about it a little like this.  

Inside the cabinet at my house, my kids have a chore chart. There are 4 chores on that chart. You would think, 4 chores how hard can that be. But some days, it’s like pulling teeth. Admittedly, those 4 chores have to get done many times a day. They are things like, “empty the dishwasher”. In a family of 7 we empty the dishwasher at least 10 times a day.  

As my kids get older, they help with more and more stuff around the house. But they also realize just how little they do.  

They realize if it wasn’t for me and mom, and really lets be honest, if it wasn’t for mom, they would hardly do anything. They wouldn’t have anything. It’s mom’s work that does everything. And most importantly, our work lets them work for themselves, for their sisters and brothers, and ultimately, for all of us.  

Jesus rose from the dead and he gets to say, more than anything else, when you trust me, my work is your work. You can live in my success. You can live in my work.  

And he says, “I have not only conquered sin and death and the devil to stop their work. I have begun my work of restoring all creation. I am making it beautiful and wonderful and excellent all again.” 

And he says, “I invite you to do your work for me, for my goals, my ends, my way, for my benefit, and you will do good work for yourself, your friends and family, and society.”  

When you start to look less at your own satisfaction with your work and more at the satisfaction he had with his work, and when you look less at the bills you are paying for your family and more at the bill he paid for you and for the family of the world, and less at how much you are changing the world and more at how much he changed the world, you really are going to work well. 

I bet you know more than a few people who could be a good example of this. One person I thought of was a man named John Magee Jr. In 1940 he illegally entered Canada to enlist in the Canadian Air Force to fight against the Germans. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a Pilot Officer.  

Here was a guy, he plainly wanted to make a difference in the world. He felt called to serve society. And there was more to him.  

In 1941 he texted a new model of the Spitfire airplane. He wrote a poem about the experience. When you read that poem, you know right away that he absolutely flew for himself. He felt sheer joy and pleasure at his work. He wrote, “ 

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth  

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 

He saw the work he was doing was for himself.  

He also saw it was for his family. After the flight, he wrote his parents about the experience and sent the poem to him. You’ve got himself, his friends and family, and the world.  

And what drove it all? The last lines of his poem... 

“And while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod 

The high, untrespassed sanctity of space, 

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.” (Hugh Welchel, How Then Should We Work, pg 120-121)  

John did not first and foremost work for himself, friends and family, or even to change the world.  

Work for the Lord and you will work well for yourself, your family, and the world   

Get to Work: Work that is Worth it

Mark 1:16-20

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." 18 At once they left their nets and followed him. 19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him

Listening guide

 “Follow me and I will send you out to fish for people” (verse 17)

“in the most nobly constituted state ... the citizens must not live a mechanic or a mercantile life … nor must those who are to be citizens be tillers of the soil”. (Aristotle, Politics 1328b-1329a) 

 The call to _______________ is also a call to ______________________ the world.

“they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men”. (verse 20)

When you work with Jesus, then your work is worth it.  

Sermon

Something kind of strange has happened with two friends lately and it has made me have all kinds of questions about work.

I’ve got one friend, his name is Kevin. He is a very smart, business oriented, driven man. He has a great education. He has started at least two businesses. He has made and given away thousands of dollars.

At one point, he didn’t only think about doing church work, he was actually doing a lot of church work. He preached on an almost weekly basis. He set up adult education groups and classes for kids. He organized events. He taught the basics of the gospel to people. He baptized people.

Then he changed. He has basically stopped preaching. He left the church group and he didn’t start anything new. I think he reads his Bible with his wife and kids, that is about it.

Another friend, his name is Luke. He is nowhere near as smart. He isn’t as well educated. He has never started a business. He worked in a factory and eventually developed enough skills to manage.

He has recently agreed to serve in public ministry. He is going to organize classes, teach classes, and develop materials. He’ll work with children and adults. It’s so weird.

I’ve got one friend stepping back from public ministry. I’ve got another friend stepping forward.

Which one should I encourage? Who has done a good thing? Who has done a bad thing? Do neither matter to God? Are both worth it?

Adventure

All kinds of people are asking right now, is my work worth it?

Is service work valuable? Is managing valuable? Is starting, owning, and running a business valuable? Is church work valuable? And here is where it really gets hard.

Is church work more valuable than the service industry? Is managing more valuable than the service industry?

Let’s discover today work that is worth doing.

I can’t promise you that you will always feel like your work is worth doing. I can promise you that you’ll be a little more convinced that work is worth doing.

Development

[image of Jesus calling disciples] This event today follows immediately after Jesus is called to live as the Son of God in his baptism. The Father said, “you are my Son.” He heard that call from God. He was tempted. He passed that test. He began his public work.

Then he says, “Follow me”.

“Follow me” is an easy way to describe the Christian religion. You can say, “I believe Jesus is my Savior and Lord.” You can also say, “I follow Jesus.” He says more.

He also says, “Follow me and I will send you out to fish for people” [over slide]

I want us all to notice what he says, “fishers”. The disciples were literally fishermen. They weren’t students at the synagogue or rabbis in training. They weren’t learning to be religious lawyers. I know we hear this pretty often. Jesus had 12 disciples.

We know at least 7 were workers and probably all of them were. James and John were fisherman who employed other people. And Jesus called these hands on workers to believe in him and do his work. That’s not the way all the ancient world worked.

Take Greek society for example. Greek society said “that to be unemployed was good fortune, because it allowed a person to participate in the life of contemplation” (Hugh Welchel, How Then Should We Work, pg 58). It said that “in the most nobly constituted state ... the citizens must not live a mechanic or a mercantile life … nor must those who are to be citizens be tillers of the soil”. (Aristotle, Politics 1328b-1329a) One historian summarizes the traditional worldview saying “work was considered a defect” (Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor, pg 141).

Wow! Can you believe that? I bet some of you would say, hey that sounds kind of great. I’d love to give up my job. I wouldn’t mind being done with work. But that’s the point. God never talks that way.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Genesis 2:15) When God made the world, he asked people to cultivate it. Or this one.

“Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.” (1 Corinthians 7:24) That’s the apostle Paul. Again, this is about work.

Or there is Jesus here. He says, “fishers of people”. He could have said students. He could have said, follow me and I'll give you the life of relaxation. But he says, look, you already are where you should be in life. Let’s get to work. Let me change you to work for God and the world.

The disciples got this. Jewish people cultivated the world. After Jesus rose from the dead, they went back to fishing. They were probably afraid a little, but they believed God could use fishermen.

This is our first point today. The call to follow is also a call to cultivate the world. God wants you to believe in him and he wants to work through you where you are.

I think this is pretty awesome. God wants us to work. Let me tell us this old story.

A retired friend became interested in the construction of an addition to a shopping mall. Observing the activity regularly, he was especially impressed by the conscientious operator of a large piece of equipment. The day finally came when my friend had a chance to tell this man how much he'd enjoyed watching his scrupulous work. Looking astonished, the operator replied, "You're not the supervisor?" (Howard Stein, Reader’s Digest)

If God is asking us to work, isn’t that how we should think about our work? Isn’t that how we should feel about our work?

Yet we all end up saying, I feel like my work isn’t worth it. What is the point of all of this?

I don’t blame you. We’ve gotten rid of the one we work with so we end up having to make our work feel worth it. He didn’t say, “I’ll send you out to fish for people”. He said, “Come follow me and I will send you out”

I would put it this way, Work alone isn’t worth it.

We feel this. I tend to be a pretty hands off kind of boss. I’m the kind of guy who will sit down with my kids at the breakfast table and say, hey kids, we’ve got this and this and this to get done today. I hope you can get these things done.

My wife will kind of look at me and say, um are you crazy. You can’t just give them a list.

The thing is, we don’t realize, that’s all modern life is. We’re just giving people lists.

Immanuel Kant, a deeply religious man, who said there are facts – math and science – and there is spiritual stuff. It was religious teachers in the 1800s who said there is the sacred and the secular.

I was sitting in a meeting one time for a Christian school. We were reviewing the mission and the vision of the school. And the principal, a Christian man, said, “We teach all secular subjects in light of God’s Word.” I spoke up and said, I don’t think we want to say that math or science is secular. I think we believe math came from God. I think there are things like the fine tuning of the universe which shows the work of God so clearly.

This is all work alone. And work alone isn’t worth it.

One of the things that I’m amazed by in this lesson is this. Jesus goes to these men and he says, “Follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.” They don’t argue. They leave their livelihood and business and go.

Who knows, maybe behind the scenes, they had a conversation.

You have to realize that in a traditional society, you didn’t do this. This didn’t happen. Sons did not abandon their fathers to the work.

Jesus wants to say, not only have I come to do my Father’s work. And not only am I amazingly good at it. I will be abandoned by my Father so that your work can be worth it.

He says, I know that as long as you have to work for families, for yourself, and for your neighbors, your work will never be good and perfect. He says, let me take care of that work.

He will be abandoned by his Father, so that at moment, he can do the good work we’re supposed to do.

When we stop working for our friends, our families, and ourselves, then we can claim his work. I’m not saying we shouldn’t serve them. I’m saying, when we give up all these things as idols, then we can take his work.

When you work with Jesus, then your work is worth it.

Action

Do work that develops the world. Some work isn’t good - Jesus didn’t let Matthew and Judas stay as thieves. Most work is acceptable. That doesn’t mean we think it cultivates the worth.

Do work that satisfies you. There are two easiest mistakes to make about work satisfaction. The one is to say that I work only for more personal fulfillment. The other is to only work for my family, friends, or the

“24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.

Do work everywhere. We don’t just work for 40 or 60 hours per week for our boss. Work in our neighborhoods, our families,

Martin Luther said something kind of funny. “God himself will milk the cows through him whose vocation that is. He who engages in the lowliness of his work performs God’s work, be he lad or king.

Friends, your work is worth it.

Get to Work

Mark 1:4-15

Listening guide

What’s your least favorite job? ________________

What’s your most favorite job? _________________

Work is ___________________, challenging toil. 

Work is _____________________.

Work is ______________________.

Everyone __________________ even if work is ______________.

We fix work the _________  ____________.

Hear God’s __________ and get to __________!

God’s call gives you weight or substance or strength so that work doesn’t destroy you. 

God’s call gives you a sense of the dignity and the worth of even simple work without which you could be bored to death. 

God’s call gives you a moral or ethical compass without which work will corrupt you. 

God’s call will shape your work.

Sermon

Sad to not be physically with you today.  

Thankful to Tom Wright, Cindy, Kaitlyn, Charlie, and Hannah, and especially Tom for covering for me last week. Thank you 

Thank you to Hannah, Cindy, Kaitlyn and especially Josh and Ron for covering for me today. Thanks for your work guys. So good to work with you to bring you and the people you love the gospel of Jesus.  

I wanted to be with you. Wanted to preach. I was telling my wife as I went to bed how weird it was, no matter how I was feeling I still want to be in church. Nothing like the physical gathering of God’s people to celebrate. I have that pleasure and delight, that passion for work.  

To get started today, what about you and your work?  

What has been your least favorite job or work? __________________ 

What has been your favorite job or work? _________________  

I thought about this last week. We were visiting my parents this last week. It snowed Tuesday into Wednesday. My son told his grandpa before bed, grandpa will you please wake me up at 4:30 tomorrow so that we can go shovel? I said things like Josiah that is too early. You need to sleep. Mom said the same.  

He got up the next morning about 5:30 and got right outside with grandpa to help shovel. Grandpa was saying later I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone so excited to shovel snow! Friday afternoon it snowed again. My son came to me and said, Grandpa said he would wake me up at 4:30 again tomorrow. I knew exactly what he meant. What excitement!  

Is that how you feel about your work?  

A couple of weeks ago I was at study with someone.  

One of my favorite examples of loving our work comes from Chariots of Fire. Eric Liddell “when I run I feel God’s pleasure” 

 Adventure/Discover 

That’s what I want us to have today. I want us to have pleasure in work no matter what the work.  

That’s what I want us to get throughout this season of the year. Between Christmas and Easter, we see Jesus at work.  

That all starts today with this event we call the baptism of Jesus. The Bible is a little strange in telling us the story of Jesus. We hear his birth and then jump right ahead to his public work. This means so much to him. Why do I say that? After Jesus is baptized, he is driven at once by the Spirit to be tempted. What happens at his baptism because this catalyst to drive him forward into one of the worst experiences of anyone’s life.  

God says, you can have the same pleasure, the same passion for work – no matter what your work is.  

Development 

This is the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It’s the beginning of his work. Immediately after this there will be a couple of events that confirm Jesus’ work.  

He will be tempted. We might imagine it something like getting tested on the job. Does he have the skills? Does he have the ability to do the job?  

He will call his first disciples. 4 guys, his first followers. They confirm, yes he really is a public teacher. So this is the beginning of his work.  

He does a different work than we do. He comes in a long line of Jewish religious teachers and priests. He follows after people like Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Now, I know that this kind of preaching, teaching, and training doesn’t seem much like work. But did you see, he experiences many of the same frustrations a farmer, a truck driver, or a mechanic experience.  

• Temptation - Work is frustrating, challenging toil.  - “through painful toil you will eat food” (Gen 3:17)  

• “it will produce thorns and thistles for you” (Gen 3:18) Work is fruitless. It produces what we don’t want instead of what is good, natural, and what we do want.  

• “you return to the ground” (Gen 3:19) Work can become pointless. 

These are the three main challenges to our work, and still, Jesus works. I want us all to notice this. Jesus works. Everyone thinks Jesus is great.  

That doesn’t mean he gets out of work. He works just like you and me.  

Jesus never worships work. That was the mistake of the Protestant work ethic in America. President Coolidge wrote, “The man who builds a factor builds a temple. The man who works there worships there.” Henry Ford said, “Work is the salvation of the human race.” (Os Guiness, The Call, 40)  

That’s how we mess up work. That’s not Jesus. But neither does Jesus avoid work. Jesus works because that is what people do. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Gen 2:15) Jesus worked because people work. As soon as God put people in this world he gave them work.  

No matter how bad it is. No matter how hard it is.  

Everyone works even if work is bad.  

So how do we fix work?  

I know work is hard. I feel it to. We get nothing done. We’re frustrated. We’re annoyed. We watch the rich get richer, we feel. We see nothing for years of labor.  

I hear you. And most of the time when people want to quit, we say something like, what do you want to be known for? What do you want to leave behind?  

That doesn’t help. We already feel like we aren’t doing anything. 

And when we’re really tired and frustrated, someone always seems to say. Push on. Just keep going. It’ll get better.  

We even might say something like, let’s get to the Lord’s work. We’ve got a lot of work to do here at church. Maybe you’re happy with the rest of life or not, let’s get to work over here.  

Dorothy Sayers “The church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him to not be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.” (Dorothy Sayers 

We fix work the wrong ways.  

What does Jesus hear then that changes his work?  

God won’t change all of the work in the world, but he will change right now who you are in the world. That’s exactly what he does with Jesus. He tells Jesus, “You are my Son”. “you are my Son, whom I love.” (verse 11)  

God places this call, this claim, this expectation, and this declaration on Jesus himself.  

These words, “You are my Son, whom I love.” God placed a claim on Jesus’ life. He affirmed who he was. He asked him to be someone in particular. 

We have to realize just how much this is not good advice or good information, but this is truly good news.  

If you’ve ever started a job before, what does both the interview and day 1 almost inevitably start with? The interview is mostly going to start with a job description and matching up your education, your experience to the job. Do you have the abilities, do you have the skills for the job? When you get to day 1 on the job, day 1 is almost inevitably going to run over all the expectations you have to fulfill to keep the job. Show up on time, report to this person, send in this many reports per week, complete these tasks,  and so on. None of that is bad. That’s all good information. That’s all good information you need to do your job.  

Without that information you would almost certainly fail at your job. Have you ever tried to do a job where you didn’t know the expectations of the boss? There is no more frustrating and failure filled experience. But all that information, as good as it is, isn’t good news.  

They are still demands you have to live up to.  

The other part that is always fun when you start a new job, one of the first few days on the job somebody will pull you aside and say, here are all the things  

That’s good advice.  

None of that is good news. None of that is what God said to Jesus. You are my Son. That claim, that affirmation is powerful good news.  

I think about this when I see kids with special toys. For me, it was my dut. I got this duck before I was one. I loved it so much, I wore it apart. Funny part was, when I was two I think, I got a new duck. That duck is pristine to this day.  

I said, “you are my dut”. I did not want any other duck. And no other duck could do the job of dut. Dut was the one and only. He was the only one who could be dut for me.  

You see, my claim, my affirmation on dut made him dut. I refused to ask any other duck to be my duck, so no one else could do the job. You know there was nothing wrong with the duck itself. It’s a perfectly fine duck. Instead, it was entirely my claim on that duck that made it my duck.  

We say, wait a second. Does this thing happen with God? Does God place a call or a claim or an expectation or a declaration, whatever you want to call it, on a person, that profoundly influences who they are? I say yes. 

I don’t know if you know the story of Aleksander Solzenitsyn. He was a famous writer who died about 10 years ago. He became one of the most famous critics of Communism through his writing.  

But he didn’t start out that way. He actually said that he “drifted in literature unthinkingly and hate to think what sort of writer I would have become.”  

But his time in the Gulag (the Soviet camps), a miraculous cure from cancer, his conversion to faith in Jesus, and a deepening burden to put the “dying wish of the millions” on record opened his eyes to an immense calling he had.  

At 55, still with 20 years of life and work left, he said, “The one worrying thing was that I might not be given time to carry out the whole scheme. I felt as though I was about to fill a space in the world that was meant for me.”  

Substitution = Jesus in my place  

Jesus took your place in his baptism. Jesus wants to take your place. Won’t you let him? Won’t you let him be that Son  

Alex hates baths. Every time I bathe him, I think, I would glad to take your place. 

Hear God’s call and get to work 

I want to wrap this up and quickly give you 4 ways that hearing God’s call will make a clear difference for work. These are really encouraging.  

1. God’s call gives you the weight or substance or the strength so that work doesn’t destroy you.  

1. God’s call gives you a sense of the dignity and the worth of even simple work without which work could bore you to death.  

1. God’s call gives you a moral or ethical compass without which work will corrupt you. 

1. God’s call will shape your work. 

Take these 4 ways God’s call matters for work and hear God’s call. Jesus went first to make the space for you. He is the Son you and I never are so that we can truly be sons and daughters of God.  

Hear God’s call and get to work. 

The Greatest Gift: Responding

Luke 1:26-38

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Listening guide

“May your word to me be fulfilled.”(verse 38) 

Who is this child? son of the Most High God; He will reign on the throne forever.

Whatever you want, I want, God.

Discussion questions

Sermon

I’ve got some presents for you today. I’d like to give you them.  

I brought some trash. That’s for you.  

I’ve got a chocolate bar.  

I’ve got a broken toy 

Give a game  

I’ve got a book 

Give a pandemic 

Give a million dollar 

Did you hear what Mary said about her present? She didn’t say “ewww” and she didn’t say “yay!” either. What did she say?  

“May your word to me be fulfilled.”(verse 38) Do you know what those words mean? They mean, make it happen. Let’s do this. I want what you want, God.  

God has just said to her, I’m going to give you a baby. She doesn’t say, really?. She doesn’t say, “um no”. She doesn’t say hooray. She says, if that’s what you want God, that’s what I want. I want what you want.  

Did you see how much your response changed for each gift I gave? I could almost tell what I gave you by your response. If I gave you a bad gift, you were sad. When I gave you a boring gift, you were annoyed. f I gave you a great gift, you were glad. When I gave you an outrageous gift, you were ecstatic.  

God told Mary, here is my gift to you. Her response tells us so much. This is how you respond if Jesus really is who the angel says he is.  

That doesn’t work for Jesus. You can’t do that with Jesus.  

• The son of the Most High God. That means he is God. He is all powerful, almighty, all knowing, eternal,  

• He will reign on the throne forever. That means he is a king like  

He is God in human flesh. There is no one else in the universe like him.  

Some people say, I don’t have to respond to Jesus. I don’t have to do anything with Jesus. Because Mary lived a long time ago and she was religious like everyone else. It was easy for her but not for us. No one believes that stuff anymore. A man who is God? That doesn’t happen.  

You have to see how hard it was for Mary to believe. When the angel comes to Mary and says a fancy “hello”, Mary was troubled. And not just a little troubled. Mary was greatly troubled. 

Mary was even more confused when the angel told her she would have a baby. She said, how could this happen? She didn’t expect miracles to happen all over the place.  

It’s easy to think, people who lived long ago were simple. They believed in God and supernatural things because they didn’t know how science and the world worked. That wasn’t the case at all. These things didn’t happen. Angels didn’t just start talking to people. Women did not have babies who didn’t have men in their lives.  

You can’t say, thus isn’t going to make a difference because it’s an old fashioned story.  

God is saying to you today, I am putting the most wonderful, beautiful, glorious, and even fun gift in your lap.  

He is also saying, I’m putting the most powerful, the most mighty, the most magnificent force, the most terrifying, and the most destructive force in the whole world in your lap. You have to realize what I’m giving you and respond in the right way. I’d like to give us an example.  

Train I thought it was from my grandpa raising my dad. We figured out this year that it was it was probably my great grandpa who bought it raising my grandpa. I immediately started treating it differently. I resolved right away to get a professional to take it apart and redo the electrical.  

Does that kind of realization happen about Jesus?  

There was a man who was at a conference one time listening to a woman speak.  

The woman said, “If the distance between the Earth and the sun—ninety-three million miles—was no more than the thickness of a sheet of paper, then the distance from the Earth to the nearest star would be a stack of papers seventy feet high; the diameter of the Milky Way would be a stack of paper over three hundred miles high. Keep in mind that there are more galaxies in the universe than we can number. There are more, it seems, than dust specks in the air or grains of sand on the seashores. Now, if Jesus Christ holds all this together with just a word of his power (Hebrews 1:3)—is he the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant?” 

That simple logic shattered my resistance to doing what Mary did. Yes, if he really is like that, how can I treat him as a assistant rather than as Supreme Lord? (Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas,  

This child is the greatest gift. He is not the greatest gift because of all the nice things he will do for you, even though they are awesome. He is not the greatest gift because of the help he will give you when life is bad, even though that is great. He is the greatest gift simply because he is the greatest.  

The one thing you can’t say or do, is nothing at all. You either say, no way. I don’t want anything to do with you Jesus. Or you say, I want all of you. Let’s do this. Whatever you want, I want.  

The Greatest Gift: Identity

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Listening guide

He is not the Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet. He is a voice. 

The ______________________ of a clear _______________

Discussion questions

No discussion questions while we work on "The End” study.

Sermon

Intro 

“Watch, it will probably behave for you.” That’s what someone said when they couldn’t get the printer to print the other day. I stared at it real hard for a second, then told the printer which size paper to use, and boom, out came the page.”  

They couldn’t help but say what I did and draw conclusions about who I was. I was something of a tech whizz or even more, I had a superpower  

What people say about who we are matters. Most everyone gets their sense of who they are from two places.  

• Family, especially in more traditional circles. I’ve got a relative who is kind of important in the synod. 

• Work, in the modern. “Tell me about yourself” we don’t list hobbies or family. We list our work.  

• Who we are on the inside – our nature  

The question, “who are you” isn’t the only question. Where are we going, what am I here to do. We also need to ask these questions. Some people say “identity is the most important thing.” Not true. So is purpose and origin.  

There is a reason the Frozen movies have done so well. They are so great at tapping into the great questions of “who we are”. From the hit song, “Let it Go” when Elsa is working on the confidence to tell other people who she is; to the follow up “into the unknown” when Elsa is telling other people to say who they are.  

Who you are is not the most important question in life 

• What you are here to do 

• Where you are going 

But who you are matters. That answer matters. We know.  

Promise/Discovery 

Today God shows us what a clear sense of who we are can do. He shows us a man named John the Baptist.  

The vitality of a clear identity 

Development 

John does something that I think is notable. People see this incredible movement he has produced. It really is incredible. Never before have thousands of Jews gotten baptized. They ask who he is. He answers simply. He is not the Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet. He is a voice.  

If you read about this section, the commentators all point out how well John answers. He states the truth with both positive and negative statements. Good clarity. Two notable things. 

The negative statements. He states he is not Messiah, Elijah, or the prophet. I don’t know if those seem like random names for you. They aren’t. These were some of greatest men in Israelite history and each was commonly prophesied to come again. You have to imagine what this would have meant for John. The appeal of it.  

Imagine if the president of the United States, the Speaker of the House, the president of the Synod, and the archbishop came to you and asked you if you were Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, or Jonathan Edwards. That would fill you with pride. That would puff you up beyond belief.  

They asked if John was one of the 3 most important 3 men in all Israelite history. Talk about a big head!  

Then there is the positive statement. John says, “I’m a voice.” Only a voice. Nothing else. What’s a voice?  

This is the thing. The people think John is this extravagant, amazing, and radical guy. Remember, Jews didn’t get baptized, but somehow scores of Jews are coming for baptism. So they come out there saying to him, who do you think are you? You must have this incredible ego or you must truly be this incredible, out of this world guy to be out here baptizing. You must have this incredible sense of personage and identity to have the confidence for this.  

They weren’t even that far off. Jesus one time says that among people born of women, there is no one greater than John. And John the Baptist says, “No, no. I’m just a voice pointing to the one who is to come.” Here’s what he’s saying. “In myself I am nothing, but the one I serve is the greatest in the world. I’m just a voice, but I’m talking about the greatest one in the world. What I do, is I amplify, I expand, and I make large who he is.  

John doesn’t get a big head. He doesn’t get puffed up. He’s not full of himself. Whatever you want to say. But he doesn’t back down. He is a voice. There is this scene in the movie, The Greatest Story Ever Told. In it, there is this scene where John says, “Repent, that’s adultery!” Herod replies something like, “you’re going to die for that.” John says, “you’re going to hell for that.” Herod says, “I can kill you.” John says, “I’ll finally be free.” When Herod finally does kill him, there is this voice ringing in the background.  

John doesn’t look to his family and clan to tell who he is. He doesn’t look to his work. He doesn’t look inside himself. John looks to the one who stands among them. He looks at the one whose sandals he is not worthy to untie.  

I remember looking at the Sistine Chapel. That ceiling is so amazing. That sight did not fill me with confidence or make me strong. It made me feel small and unworthy.  

And there really are some scenes that probably make me feel stronger, almost arrogant, than I should. Like when I look at my clan at a wedding, I kind of say, yeah, that’s what we’re up to. That’s what we’re doing. Or there were a few papers, I know, right, papers, but really, papers, and a few networks I’ve built that I say, those things really make me feel good about what I am.  

I have those things in my life that make me feel strong,  

And some of you would probably say, yeah but pastor that is just for a moment. And those are good things.  

I would say, yeah, they are good things. What I’ve got to say is, like John, I’m unworthy, but I serve the greatest one in the world. I’m here to amplify him, expand him, and enlarge him.  

That’s because Jesus has said we’re worthy.  

He even said, “unless I wash you, you have no part in me.” (Jesus washes feet.) 

John was seeing that moment where Jesus says, yeah, you’re not worthy. You’re not. But I will give my whole self to make you worthy.  

John can say better than anyone, I’m unworthy. Of course I am. There is the one who is worthy to baptize. He is my hero. He is my Savior. I put all my confidence and trust in him. I transfer all my trust to him. 

He is so clear on that. That’s what clarity of identity can sound like.  

Action 

Do you want one of the greatest gifts this Christmas? Learn to say, I’m a voice. I’m here to enlarge, to amplify, and make him great.  

That kind of clarity won’t ruin you. The opposite is true. That kind of clarity will be your vitality.  

I think in many ways, this whole line of questioning of “who we are on the inside” is better. Whether it’s Frozen, Xmen Mutants, or even the whole sense of inner beauty. There is good in that. It’s better than pigeonholing people based on their family or their work. It's still not as good as just being a voice, as being that person who will enlarge, expand, and make someone else great.  

Imagine if your life went like this. A man named Chad would visit this nearly blind and forgetful woman. She could never remember who he was, so he would walk into the room and introduce himself. She always said, “Who”? “Who are you?” After he told her, he would go on with his visit.  

He would tell her law and gospel. He would speak of our lost condition, of our sin, of the dreadful place we find ourselves in apart from God, condemned by His law because of our transgressions. Then he would tell her of Jesus, who sought us in love, who bled out His life’s blood to wash away our transgressions, who exited the tomb alive and well that we might follow Him in our resurrection. 

Every single time, after she had listened, speechless, to all he said, she would respond with shock and surprise, as if this were the first time in her life that she had heard the Gospel. She would literally rejoice, almost laugh with glee, that God loved her so much that He would do all things for her. 

You would think, now, what a neat thing to have that kind of an impact on someone. What if each time the people around you forgot about Jesus and even forgot about you, you could tell them of sin and grace and they would come alive! That wasn’t the best part.  

Because here is what that did to Chad. Chad was on his own way to falling apart. He went from pastor to drugs, sex and more. He didn’t remember who he was. Part of the memory of this woman saying, “who, who are you” that woke him up. He said something like, “I am a man with a life full of regret, full of failure, whom Jesus loves without regret, without fail. No matter what job I have, I am defined not by what I do but by what God has done for me in His Son.” The Blind, Demented Woman Who Introduced Me to Myself | 1517, accessed 12/12/2020)  

That drove him on to be a truck driver, a writer, a public speaker, and a father. In myself I am unworthy, but I am worthy because of what God has done in Jesus. That’s the vitality of a clear identity.  

The Greatest Gift: Forgiveness

Mark 1:1-8

1The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way"- 3"a voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the LORD, make straight paths for him.'" 4And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7And this was his message: "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Listening guide

Mark 1:1-8

Forgiveness is hard when it _____________.

Do you find it easier to say ….

One of the greatest gifts I can give you is a world with forgiveness.  

“I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” — 3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”  4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  

the Lord = 

baptism

don’t forgive because ….

I’ve got one of the greatest gifts: _________________

Discussion Questions

Sermon

Is there anything for which I need to ask forgiveness? (RM) “No, just differences.” 

Yet his critical remarks were still running around in my head. He had practically stomped away. He didn’t answer calls.  

I had a hard imagining that there was nothing that needed to be forgiven. Everything I saw said we need forgiveness.  

Forgiveness is great, it’s wonderful right up to the moment we actually have to forgive someone. The moment we actually have to say, I’m going to absorb the cost or let someone else absorb the cost of what you’ve done. I’m going to accept you without any hard feelings. That moment, it gets hard. Forgiveness is hard when it costs. If you come to my house and break a lamp, someone has to pay for that lamp. Either I say to you,  

• Look, I can’t really afford to replace this lamp. Will you please replace it? Then you pay the physical cost of the lamp, plus you accept the responsibility or blame. You take the guilt. Or I say 

• I’ll take care of it. I pay the cost. And then if I forgive you. I don't hold it against you. And I invite you over for dinner again.  

At some point I will say, look, you’ve broken four lamps at my house. I think we better eat someplace else. But there are so a couple of things that are much easier to say. 

It’s much easier to say, everyone is bad. Everyone does wrong stuff all the time. It’s not big deal. It’s much easier to say everyone is at least a little bad or guilty. It’s a fault without guilt attitude. Even I get this. Let’s say you don’t like something I do. One thing people say then to explain what I do is to say, “nobody’s perfect.”  What you’re doing, you’re excusing wrongdoing by saying, “everyone is wrong.” That might be true, but that doesn’t mean what I did is any less wrong. It’s much easier to excuse me than it is to confront a pastor.  

It’s also easier to say, nothing is really wrong. There is a view that says, “the only thing that is wrong is to tell me I’m wrong.” That’s another whole issue. Again, if someone does something and we say, “nope, you didn’t do anything wrong.” That is much easier to say than, “I forgive you.”  

I think we completely underestimate just how amazing forgiveness actually is. Loren Toussaint, a psychologist, might say that “people over 45 years of age who had forgiven others reported greater satisfaction with their lives and were less likely to report symptoms of psychological distress, such as feelings of nervousness, restlessness, and sadness” (The New Science of Forgiveness | Greater Good (berkeley.edu), accessed 12/05/2020)  

We could go through all kinds of data. In the end, I would say, there are a lot of things easier than forgiveness. You could create peer relationships without forgiveness. You could create a family without forgiveness. We’re on the way to creating a society without forgiveness.  

The data shows, and today God says, 

Promise/Adventure  

God says, one of the greatest gifts I can give you is a world with forgiveness.  

Development 

Mark chapter 1. This is a great section. Each week before Christmas we are going to take one of the backgrounds to the life of Jesus. Each section tells something God wants to give in sending Jesus. In Mark 1 it says, ““I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way” — 3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”   

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”  

Whether we get it right away or not, he isn’t so much saying, “Get ready. Repent more or repent the rest of the way. Prepare your heart.” He isn’t really saying that.  

He is saying, the king is here. He is saying God has become part of this physical, material world and he forgives. Let me show you.  

Mark writes, “prepare the way for the Lord”. Sometimes in the Bible the word “Lord” means respected person or revered person. Your “lord” is your master or your ruler. That’s not what Mark says.  

The word “Lord” in the Hebrew is the name for God himself. It’s the name God gave when he introduced himself to Moses. He said, “The Lord, The Lord”. Now Mark is saying, God is not just coming at some far off time at the end of the world. We’ve talked about that. God will come again. Every eye will see him.  

He is saying, God has come now. As a human being. You have to realize this rocked the Jewish world. The Greeks said all the time, the gods have become men. Mark says, “That man, this man Jesus, is God himself.”  

And what he brings, or the only way to have him, is forgiveness. What does it mean it mean to prepare the way? It is a baptism of repentance for forgiveness. One thing you got to know here... 

Why did John all the sudden start baptizing people?  

The Jews practiced ceremonial washing. They did that regularly. It was a physical practice. One of the things it did, the people got to make a physical expression of what was going on in their lives. But no one got baptized to be a believer. That wasn’t how it worked.  

You went to synagogue school. You were instructed. You professed the shema. And eventually, you were accepted.  

Then God comes along and says, I would be glad to take you, I want you, and every one of you needs to be baptized as an act of repentance. You are much worse than you imagine and you cannot stay as you are. If I am here and I am at work, you will change. You do not get life your way.  

Let me make a little clearer what I’m saying.  

Everyone has a ruler, a master, a Lord in their lives. I think far and away the best one is the Lord, the God of heaven and earth. His kingdom is a kingdom of forgiveness. That is the only way he operates. You either take it or leave him.  

If you say, forgiveness isn’t part of my life. I don’t believe in forgiveness. I don’t practice forgiveness. No one ever sins against me. I don’t see any sin in my life. If you say that, you are part of a different kingdom and world. You won’t ever have to forgive me. You won’t ask me to forgive you.  

That might be a great world very often. You might have a lot of strength, a lot of power. I could imagine no one will ever mess with you or cross you. Why would they? It’s not safe at all. On other hand, you might have a lot of kindness, pity, and even excessive generosity. I could imagine no one would ever hate you or leave you. Why would they? You’ll never turn on them.  

But that isn’t God’s world. God both confronts and comforts. We pray it every week. “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Do you realize what that is saying?  

That’s saying, you will not be forgiven if you do not forgive. Heinrich Heine, German nonbelieving poet in the 800s. “God will forgive me. It’s his job.”  

That is the thing of God. And if God is not forgiving you, and if you aren’t taking that forgiveness and being moved. If you haven’t moved by it and absorbed by it, if it doesn’t fill up the low places in your life and knock down the high places in your life, then you don’t get God yet.  

Not only are you not part of his kingdom. You’re saying, look God, I know how the world works better than you.  

• Evolutionary thinking, common thinking tells us to eliminate our enemies.  

What we need to do is ask, on a practical basis or an evolutionary basis, why forgive at all? Going back to the light example, it doesn’t benefit me at all to forgive you for breaking my light. I have to pay the money for a new light. Plus, I lose any power I gained over you.   

The world of forgiveness is a frightening, terrifying and thrilling place. It’s a world where anything goes. 

• Where relationships can be wrecked, and wrecked relationships can be restored 

• where lives can be destroyed once and for all, (if you don’t want to be rebuilt) and destroyed lives can be rebuilt, and 

This is truly one of the greatest gifts: forgiveness.  

Action 

So take this gift this Christmas, and if you really enjoy it, give it.  

(Don’t forgive because …. 

You’ll notice, I’m not saying forgive because we are all feeling guilty. I do believe guilt is a real thing. I know I feel guilty. What I call a feeling of guilt is an intense feeling that I messed up. I didn’t just make some else feel awkward but I actually did something wrong, even if I don’t know what it is. I think feeling guilty is a real thing. We would all be a lot healthier and happier if we deal with our guilt. Smart psychology says the same thing.  

Still, that’s not what I’m saying today. That’s not what God is saying.  

I’m not saying forgive because we need to keep the peace. I do think forgiveness is good for reconciliation. We’ve got too many relationships that are characterized by unforgiveness. Let me five you three characteristics of relationships that are missing forgiveness: avoidance, coldness, irritability. We would have a lot stronger and more meaningful relationships if we practiced forgiveness. Again, psychology says the same.  

I’m saying more than that. God is saying more than that. We’re saying that you are not you and God is not God if you don’t forgive.  

I’ve told you before this example of the woman and her husband who felt guilty for the abortion they had. She said she had confessed her sins thousands of times and couldn’t get rid of it all.  

Some people would say to her, accept that you’re forgiven. You feel guilty because you just don’t accept that you really are forgiven. Jesus died for that sin too. Believe it. And that would be right.  

Other people would say, look, Jesus died to give you peace with God. Stop pushing that peace away. Trust it. That’s not what someone told her.  

This woman sat down with another woman named Rebecca and confessed her sin. Rebecca looked at her and said, “The sin that led to you taking that life was pride. And the sin that led to Jesus losing his life 2,000 years ago on the cross was also pride. And if you know enough to know that Jesus already paid for that sin 2,000 years ago, then you’ll know he can cover any sin.”   

In that moment, she realized she had been saying, my way is better. God couldn’t work this way. But if you accept that Jesus died to pay for you saying, “God can’t do it this way. My way is better”, then God can die for every other sin too and forgive every other sin.  

If you get that, that’s not a simple thing. You can’t just say, “Nice sermon” or “That’s inspiring”. You have to stop beating yourself up over the mistakes that you have made. And you have to take all of that energy and say, I’ve got one of the greatest gifts: forgiveness.” You have to praise him, just like that.  

The End: Attitude

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

3But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the LORD, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our LORD Jesus Christ. 15So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. 16May our LORD Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

Listening guide

Sermons

The End: The Clarity of Splendor

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Listening guide

“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way” (verse 3) 

“don’t let anyone deceive you in any way” about the man of lawlessness (verse 3). 

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” 

The real _____________________ takes ____________ place.

“For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.” (verse 7). 

“And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.” (verse 8) 

Splendor destroys deceit.  

Discussion questions

The End: Victory

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Listening guide

 “we don’t want you to be uninformed” (verse 13)

“For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.” 

Let us hope for eternal glory.  

Discussion questions

The End: The Reality

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Sermon

CM -Talking about the end, the end of our lives, and if they person was ready. “ as we get older we think about these things more”  

I don’t know if that’s true. Brother in law and I used to talk about getting hit by the proverbial bus.  

Global pandemic means everyone is thinking about the end more. 

What I want to say to you, is, that’s a good thing. Not because I want to scare you. I can tell you that every time my brother in law and I mentioned getting hit by the proverbial bus, we thought differently  

I want you to believe in a last judgment because that will bring meaning to your life  

The first thing we need to do. We need to clarify what the end actually is and what it isn’t. From both what people have said and our movies, we can tell pretty quickly what we think the end is.  

There is the old War of the Worlds. For me, Independence Day was a big one (I know, that dates me). Armageddon, I am Legend. More recently, “The Wandering Earth”. Throw in some vampires. Throw in a plague. Then every movie is a great end of the world story. What we tend to think the end is is total destruction. 

I think our conversations show the same...  

• JF – call and talk about deceased mom, nope  

• JM – call the dieing person, nope 

Christians have historically said, no, that’s not enough. It may be that. But that’s not really it. What it really is, Paul calls it “the day of the Lord”. (verse 2) He doesn’t call it the “night of the Lord.” He calls it the day of the Lord.  

What light does, it makes things visible. It makes everything clear and easily seen. It allows for good or at least better decision making, it cuts through the fog.  

Have you ever been deeply depressed? I think if you’ve ever been deeply depressed because someone you loved died, or because you were divorced, or maybe you lost a job you really enjoyed, you can get this better. 

Often what comes over you when you’re deeply depressed, there is no other way to describe it than brain fog. That’s what people commonly call it. You can’t think clearly. You can’t sometimes even see clearly. Your head feels kind of disconnected from your body. You touch things and you know they are there, but they don’t feel real. There isn’t any crispness, any sharpness, or any clarity to life.  

This is what the Bible says the end is. The day of the Lord is going to be the day when things finally get revealed for what they are.  The end is going to reveal everything that has been dark, and confusing, and scary, everything deceptive, everything lieing everything manipulative and everything evil and everything good and beautiful and true and wonderful and glorious and honorable and respectful is going to be painfully obvious. 

I think Paul shows us, look, the end of the world is both better and far worse than you could possibly imagine. If your idea of the end of the world is destruction, it’s much better than that. The end of the world actually makes everything clear. The end is not so much destruction but judgment. 

One way I’ve thought about it is the Awa people in the Amazon. There is a people group called the Awa in the Amazon. Their entire ethnicity and tribe has only 355 people remaining. They are a people group in native to the Amazon, they live off the land, and there are only 355 of them left.  They are threatened by gunmen, loggers, and hostile settlers. The Awa are watching all their homeland disappear right in front of their eyes and watching children die from violence. One of them said, “This land is mine, it is ours. We Indians live in the forest. They are going to kill everything. Everything is dying. We are all going to go hungry, the children will be hungry, my daughter will be hungry, and I'll be hungry too." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/22/brazil-rainforest-awa-endangered-tribe  

Everything about them, about their situation is clear for all to see. The bad and the good. The way they treated the land. The way they are treated. It’s all on display. It’s all public for us as we watch this tribe of people end.  

This is sad. This is a tragedy.  

If that sounds terrifying to you, far more terrifying to you than you are comfortable with, I assure you it is. All you’ve got to do is look at the cross.  

No matter what you think about the cross, whether you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior or not, the cross is this display of judgment. It makes things so much clearer.  

I always think of Mr Templeton, who didn’t believe in Jesus, because he said “I miss him”. He was the finest man he had every heard of. He was the most excellent moral teacher. He was compassionate. He was generous to a fault.  

The Bible says, “God presented Christ ... through the shedding of his blood … so as to be just” (Romans 3:25-26)  

The cross is the ultimate display of judgment. It is the place where you see the premiere display of the injustice, the violence, the manipulating, the lieing, the self-righteousness of humanity and at the same time it is the place where innocence and love and grace and mercy are made very clear. The cross is the ultimate display of judgment.  

The only thing you don’t see on the cross, the one thing you don’t see, is light. It was not the day of the Lord on the cross. It was the night of the Lord.  

When Matthew tells us about Jesus’ death he says, “Now from the sixth hour [i.e., noon] there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour [i.e., 3 PM].”  

And here is the thing: the death of Jesus Christ was the first day of the Lord.  

“And on that day,” declares the Lord God, 

“I will make the sun go down at noon 

and darken the earth in broad daylight. 

I will turn your feasts into mourning 

and all your songs into lamentation; . . . 

I will make it like the mourning for an only son 

and the end of it like a bitter day.” (Amos 8:9-10)  

The cross wasn’t just a day of judgment on all people. It was a day of judgment on the Son of God himself. When you see Jesus absorbed in the darkness, you know that the day of the Lord will bring only light for you. There is no amount of lieing or deceit or manipulation or evil or shame that cannot be left at that cross in the dark.  

So that you can walk into the light.  

And if that gives you a sense of relief, if that makes you feel renewed and refreshed, to know that the day of the Lord has already started and now there will be only beauty and glory and light, now you’re ready for the end.  

Action 

Paul says, “be alert and sober”. (verse 6)  

What he means is that we would be free from mental or spiritual excess. The opposite of alert and sober is drunk.  

What happens when a person is drunk? They took a good thing, alcohol, and make it the ultimate thing. At that point, the only thing that matters is the next drink, the next bottle, or the next trip to the bar. Nothing else matters anymore. Everything else loses meaning.  

If you believe that the end of the world is judgment, this won’t ruin you. You won’t be filled with either hope or despair. This will keep you from excess. Everything will be more filled with meaning.  

I guess some of you have already said, but wait I don’t need the judgement to have meaning. I think my life can be full of meaning even if the world is totally destroyed in the end or everything just disappears. 

I’ve heard that too. One of the best examples started as a British bus campaign about a decade ago: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Do you see that? There is an assumption there that without God and without a final judgment, we can have a sense of what is actually good and true and beautiful.  

I think you have to push back on that and say, is that really true?  

I fully agree that people who do not believe in God can do good things and that those good things can be all sorts of enjoyable, meaningful activities. To give a specific example, my nonbelieving friends enjoy conversation and games and a beer just as much as my believing friends.  

But would conversation even be good if there wasn’t a God who loved to talk Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?  

We don’t have time to get into it. If you want to later, let’s do it. Just put it simply, I think only God and a final judgment helps us see what is good and meaningful.  

Plenty of people have found this to be the case. ….... One example that someone pointed out to me was a Czech poet named Milosz. He watched Nazism and Communism destroy so many lives. dHe said something like, what is really a truly evil opium is belief in nothingness after death – thinking that our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders (lieing, manipulation, deceit) are not going to be judged.” (Milosz, quoted in Tim Keller, The Reason for God, pg 78). Instead, he says, it is the doctrine of judgment that undergirds a life of love and peacemaking. 

Be alert and sober. Judgement at the end brings out all the meaning of the middle of my life. 

The Good Life: Family and Faith

Proverbs 23:22 - 25

The Good Life: Friendships

Proverbs 17:17

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Proverbs 18:24

 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Listening guide

Proverbs 17:17 “17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity” 

Proverbs 18:24” One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” 

“Friendship is … the least instinctive, organic, biological … and necessary.” 

“America has never felt more isolated and more lonely than it does today. In fact there are three times as many people today as in 1985 who would categorize themselves as desperately lonely.” (General Social Survey)

We _____________ our friends so ___________________ is totally _______________.  

Proverbs 14:20 The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.   

Proverbs 17:9 Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.   

Proverbs 19:6 Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts.   

Proverbs 27:9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice. 

“everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”  John 15:15

Friendships must share a ____________________ ___________.

Not _____________________, not ______________________, not _______ ________________, maybe _________________. 

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

Great friendships form from the gospel.  

Sermon

We’ve gotten so much out of Proverbs so far for “The Good Life”. I’m not going to run through all the things we’ve been learning. You can look at the wall outside there if you want. Or you can look in your own devotional book because I’m sure like me you’re adding that wisdom there.  

We've been taking to heart this basic principle: wisdom is what you have for the 80% of times in life where there are no rules.  

I mean, we are living in a pandemic. There are basic rules. You should not murder. You shall love your neighbor. That certainly doesn’t tell you if you should hug your grandkids. A friend just said to me we should go out and play some games with this guy.  

I feel hardly worthy to give you God’s message on today’s verses. Friendship is hard for me. Pastors are a weird bunch. We’re unique.  

For whatever reason, sometimes people like you and sometimes they don’t. I do have some good friends. I’m constantly practicing and applying these things with them.  

Promise that we would be better friends 

I suspect a lot of you would basically agree and say, look how much can there be to say about this? We agree that friendship is important. Our culture values friendship. We produce a TV show called “Friends”! Who else can say that! Plus we’ve got Cheers, Big Bang Theory and on down the line. How much more could the Bible have for us?  

I could try to make you feel like you’re missing something by pointing out the number of friends you do or don’t have.  

That misses it, because God wants us to see just how unique a relationship friendship really is. It’s uniqueness. If you see how unique friendship is, you will want more friends. You will work to make more friends, no matter what.  

Proverbs 17:17 “17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity” 

Proverbs 18:24” One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” 

You see how there is a contrast here between friendship and bother? There is a contrast between friendship and family.  

Friendship is a totally different kind of relationship. Family relationships mostly blood. Romantic relationships built on lust, desire. Coworker and other business relationships which are entirely duties and obligations. Last, civic relationships, like neighbors and community built on this social contract.  

Friendships are totally different. CS Lewis said about “Friendship is … the least instinctive, organic, biological … and necessary.” 

You wouldn’t be here without romantic love. You wouldn’t grow up, be raised without family love. You wouldn’t get through your days without the kind of general affection and warmth that is part of civil love. You wouldn’t survive all the wrongdoing and evil of life without sacrificial love.  

We could at least naturally, organically survive every day of our lives without friendship. If you’ve discovered friendship, you have something that is really unique.  

You might be saying, pastor, I don’t think I could survive without my friends. I’ve got great friends. I love them. They love me. We mean everything to each other.  

First, you’ve got to watch out that you’re not confused. When I think carefully about my friendship, I realize that often – not all the time but often – it's a messed up mix of romantic love and desire, combined with sacrificial love, and some general affection for the friends of the person I really like.  

Secondly, and more important, if you’ve got great friends, good for you. Awesome. That is really unique.  

General Social Survey from 2018 of 20,000 plus people reported this. “America has never felt more isolated and more lonely than it does today. In fact there are three times as many people today as in 1985 who would categorize themselves as desperately lonely.” 

Do you know what the most common response to how many confidants do you have in your life is? 0. I have no one in my life that I can really be close to, that I can really be transparent and open with. 

Fully 1/3 of American households now have only one person living in them. 1 out of 3.  

If we’ve got good relationships that are biologically or sociologically unnecessary, that’s amazing. That’s incredible.  

The word sticks (“… there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”) is a Hebrew word that’s often translated in the Old Testament cleave. It means commitment out of a passionate love. A friend is better, in many ways, than a sibling.  

When you have a friend, you’ve chosen them. You don’t have to be with them. You pick them.  

I know this is kind of scary to say, there are a lot of great thinkers who would say, our generation, our time, we don’t have much real friendships. We don’t have great friendships. C.S. Lewis one time listed all these great friendships “David and Jonathan, Orestes and Pylades, Roland and Oliver, Amis and Amiles. Then he goes on to say he can’t think of any friendships like those celebrated today.  

Like Lewis said, one of the best examples of true friendship comes from the Bible. David and Jonathan    

…. That relationship was not biologically necessary and it was actually unhelpful.  

We choose our friends so friendship is totally unique.  

I think about how I’m doing at this. I’ve got a friendship that I’ve been sort of trying to cultivate over the last 3 years.  (JS)  

I’m not that great. I’m not in this case succeeding at building this friendship. I am not choosing and picking to be with that person.  

I don’t think we realize how blind we are on this. Good kids grow up in good families.  

WK – “take care of your family”. That’s their choice.  

We’re missing then a relationship that isn’t necessary in any way.  

This is what Jesus did. John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  

Jesus uses a lot of different pictures to describe the relationship we have with him. Servants, slaves, children. But one he says is, “I’m driven to make you friends. To make you my friend.”  

We’ve got to realize what Jesus is saying here. The power and the weight of this. It’s easy to think of Jesus becoming friends with us goes like this. We think we should imagine it like this. I think of when I was touring a church in Yinchuan China about 10 years ago. It just so happened that some other Chinese people a few years older than us were there, with a kid just our age.  

It’s not like that. It’s not like that at all. What that says is that there was something in you, there was some social need or some biological need for you to have a relationship with someone and someone to have a relationship with you.  

What Jesus does, he wants a friendship for something else.  

This is what makes friendships work. Proverbs says it like this:  

• Proverbs 14:20 The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.   

• Proverbs 17:9 Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.   

• Proverbs 19:6 Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts.   

• Proverbs 27:9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice. 

Friends always connect over something else.  

Jesus says, “everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”  

A common interest, a common experience, a common bond that connects you. CS Lewis said, “What, you too? I thought I was the only one.”  

Friendships must share a common bond.  

This tells us why friendships are so hard, why we’re so bad at them, and it shows us how to fix them. Look at all these things.  

Let’s talk about them for a second. Take a look at each of these statements.  

Proverbs is saying, you’ve got to have something in common for a friendship. It’s also saying if it is any of these things, your friendship won’t work.  

• Proverbs 14:20 The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.    

Not money 

• Proverbs 17:9 Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.   

Not gossip  

Proverbs 19:6 Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts 

Not gift giving  

• Proverbs 27:9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice. 

Maybe advice  

This is why Jesus says, all these things could bond you together.  look, the one thing that will bind us is what I make known to you. I’m telling you, you are more lost and sinful and corrupt than you know or imagine, but in me you are also more forgiven and accepted and welcomed. Not good advice or nice thoughts.  

That’s the gospel!  

The gospel is the best thing that makes friendship. I’m not saying it’s the only thing. Far and away. There are lots of other great things for friendship. But Jesus I think for good reason, we could walk on water together and be friends, but we won’t. We could eat miracle food together – okay, we did that. We could drink together. We did that. We could play games together. Nope. We could go to concerts together. Nope. We could go to church together. Did that! But the best thing,  

The gospel.  

Why?  

Look at this. Have you ever seen this spot in the Bible where it says that Herod and Pontius Pilate became friends the day they made Jesus stand trial?  

I think about this. Why is one of my best friends a Chinese man? Why do I have a great close friendship with a man 30 years my senior? Why was a Native American lady a great friend for 5 years? Why was a senior black man a good friend for 5 years?  

Why is all this? Jesus says, 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said something like “Jesus Christ looked down from the cross and saw all the people denying him and betraying him and forsaking him and mocking him and rejecting him and in the greatest act of friendship in the history of the world, he stayed.” (Charles Spurgeon, source?)   

The cross is the only place where people of every ethnicity, every class, every political persuasion can  

Craziest stories of this – Marcus Borg and NT Wright  

Marcus says, “Do you think God can forgive sins only because of Jesus’ sacrifice” - No  

NT Wright says “The messiah (Jesus) died for our sins according to the scriptures”  

“this book has grown out of a friendship” … “We offer the result to the reader as the celebration of shared friendship”  

I’m not saying this is perfect. You can look at this and say, well, sure, of course Jesus can make friendships like this because it doesn’t matter. Religion isn’t real. Religion isn’t important. But how can that be? Look at all the religious wars. Look at all the  I don’t think you can say that. You could also say... 

The gospel is one thing that anyone can share in common.  

Great friendships form from the gospel. 

Action 

Let’s do this.  

One of the biggest challenges with Christianity is that people will lose relationships – friends, family. And to some extent, it’s true. One of the hardest things for a me as a pastor, is that over the years I have perhaps lost more people than I have gained. That’s hard. Makes me sad.  

Great friendships form from gospel.  

The Good Life: Anger and Conflict

Ephesians 4:26 "In your anger, do not sin.”

Exodus 34:6 “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God slow to anger”.

Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” 

Proverbs 29:8 “Mockers stir up a city, but the wise turn away anger.” 

Proverbs 20:2 “A king’s wrath strikes terror like the roar of a lion; those who anger him forfeit their lives.” 

Proverbs 29:22 “An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins” 

Proverbs 30:33 “For as churning cream produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.” 

Proverbs 27:4 “Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy” 

Listening guide

John Casey - We must master our anger or it will master us. 

The good of anger

• Ephesians 4:26 "In your anger, do not sin.”

• Exodus 34:6 “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God slow to anger”.

Problems with anger ….

• Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” 

• Proverbs 29:8 “Mockers stir up a city, but the wise turn away anger.” 

____________________ of anger

• Proverbs 20:2 “A king’s wrath strikes terror like the roar of a lion; those who anger him forfeit their lives.” 

• Proverbs 29:22 “An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins” 

• Proverbs 30:33 “For as churning cream produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.” 

• Proverbs 27:4 “Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy” 

the ______________________ of anger

“Take this cup from me. But no, okay, I’ll drink the cup.” (Luke 22:42)

Anger can be okay, but beware its source and results. Let’s have ________________ to ______________________.  

Discussion questions

Sermons

Some of you may have seen the TV show Chuck. It features this nerdy guy named Chuck. He works at a Best Buy type store. His friend Bryce is a super spy. He sends him a computer program that basically turns Chuck into this insane bionic man. This makes him the greatest asset of the United States military.  

The show is just ridiculous. It makes me laugh. Chuck has two elite bodyguards, one named John Casey. He is an elite warrior, trained in all sorts of martial arts and tactics. One time, he faces his old trainer – his sensei. His sensei has gone rogue – he is evil. 

They fight. His sensei beats him, just pounds him. His sensei says, “you’ve lost your calm John. Your center is filled with conflict.” Then Chuck says to John, “I know why you’re such a mean person. You’re scared. Scared to be known. Scared that we would actually care about you. … Underneath you care. … Admit, say it, you love me, John Casey.”  

John is ticked. He says, “I’m going to kill you.” Chuck turns him toward his sensei. He wins the fight. Chuck says, “Casey doesn’t really have a calm center. It’s more of an angry center.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A6h729SFv0&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=SweRicardo)  

There is actually a lot to suggest the value of anger – not just for fighting. Researcher Todd Kashdan writes that “Research overwhelmingly indicates that feeling angry increases optimism, creativity, effective performance—and research suggests that expressing anger can lead to more successful negotiations, in life or on the job.” (TODD KASHDAN, ROBERT BISWAS-DIENER, https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_right_way_to_get_angry  

University of Michigan researchers found that unexpressed anger....when we hide anger it actually physically hurts us.  

As a Christian, especially a young Christian, I tended to think all anger was bad. I’m not saying there isn’t good reason to think that. I had plenty of reason to think that. In my experience, angry people hurt themselves and others.  

I had people who were so angry with things that they tried to kill themselves. I had people that when they felt wronged in a relationship they would intentionally try to ruin all the relationships of that person. I had people who were so hurt by family members that they seethed with anger all the time.  

Adventure  

And I know that is some of you. You’ve been hurt, at various times and in various ways. There is abuse, manipulation, deception, and mistreatment. I’m sorry.  

I’m sorry. That is just wrong. Period.  

No matter how badly we’ve been treated or how much bad we’ve experienced, the Bible still shows us something. In Genesis 4, there is this story of two brothers, Cain and Abel.  

Cain is angry. God comes to Cain and says, Cain, why are you angry? Sin is crouching at your door, you must rule over it.  

This is what God shows us. We must master our anger or it will master us. Unless we’ve been changed by the gospel, anger is awful.  

Today, God wants to change our anger into something better. Make it good. Make it better. Because anger can help. But it needs to be changed.  

Develop 

God knows more about anger than any of us. Let me show you.  

He says that anger, in limited doses, is good. 

• Ephesians 4:26 "In your anger, do not sin.” Or some translations say “be angry and do not sin”. So for all of you saying, pastor this is kind of awkward. We were running late to church today and the kids just weren’t hurrying so I got angry and yelled at them to hustle, here is your note. I hope you got angry and did not sin.  

• Even God gets angry. When God announced his name he said, (Exodus 34:6) “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God slow to anger”. He didn’t say, “the God of no anger”. He said the God of slow anger.   

And yet, yet,  

The Bible is almost always negative about anger.  

Here are 8 times that anger or angry shows up in the book of Proverbs. Sometimes the cause of anger is the problem.  

• Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” 

• Proverbs 29:8 “Mockers stir up a city, but the wise turn away anger.” 

This is far from a comprehensive list. These are two of the most common things that cause anger. Harsh words and mockery. We’d love to imagine that we get angry for good reasons. The truth is, what causes our anger? We make fun of people or we’re just mean.  

Other times it’s what anger produces, the result of anger that is the problem.  

• Proverbs 20:2 “A king’s wrath strikes terror like the roar of a lion; those who anger him forfeit their lives.” 

• Proverbs 29:22 “An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins” 

• Proverbs 30:33 “For as churning cream produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.” 

• Proverbs 27:4 “Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy” 

---skip these--- 

• Proverbs 21:14 “A gift given in secret soothes anger, and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath.” 

• Proverbs 22:24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, 

----- 

Look at all the bad things anger produces: death, conflict, strife, cruelty This is terrible. This is awful. Some of you experience this. Some of you live in homes like this. Some of you work in places like this.  

I say that because I’ve been there. I’ve got my own problem with anger. I don’t think its really anymore or less than anyone else. I’ve just been there where almost all the time, anger has bad causes and bad results. I’ve been the guy....  

One of the ways I process my anger is when I’m running. I’m running down the street and yelling about things. If you ever come driving past while I’m running, don’t take anything personally. It’s probably not about you.  

Some of you are going to say, look pastor, the stuff I’m angry about....I don’t know if it’s bad causes or results. I’m angry because someone I loved was abused, or I was abused. I was cheated. I was lied to. Are you sure this isn’t one of those places where the Bible is just so traditional it can’t get it right?  

Look, I get you. I understand that traditional cultures put all the emphasis on the family and the tribe and the clan and the nation. I know in those situations your part is to not rock the boat so that everyone can win. What you tell people to do with your anger, I heard this in China, people say, “Good people don’t get angry.” At first it sounds like this what the Bible is saying. It’s just another traditional culture. I don’t think that’s it.  

Individualistic cultures, like America, the West, we put all this emphasis on getting your rights. We hold up anger as positive and say, express it. Yell at people. If people don’t listen to you when you ask nicely, well then sometimes you need to yell and scream or act violently until people do.  

The first problem with this.... it’s kind of snobbish. Don’t you think it’s a little snobbish? If I say, all those traditional people want to control their anger. They don’t get angry. We know better. We emphasize individual rights and liberties. We let everyone speak up, everyone gets a vote. It’s much better this way.  

Look, isn’t that just a little snobbish? Don’t you think there is more than a little sense there of, we modern Americans are better than everyone else?  

Here is the thing. What right do you have to be angry? You’ve be wrong. You’ve been hurt. You’ve been taken advantage. You’ve been mistreated. I’m sorry. That’s terrible. It’s not right.  

That doesn’t mean anger is right.  

I want you to take a look at Jesus.  

I would guess that Jesus was almost as angry as much as anyone else in his life. In the short time we know of Jesus’ story, as a 30 year old adult male, he didn’t just participate in but he actually started something of his own protest. He cleansed the temple. He didn’t just help the sick and poor, but he actually went into an ancient church where everyone was gathered around a sick man. He asked if it was okay to help the man. He was angry, furious with the leaders when they wouldn’t help. What I mean is, he was basically filing a public court case on behalf of a guy. He gets angry at people who push away and hurt and harm children. He tells them to throw themselves into the sea. He is angry at a tree because it symbolizes the Jewish leaders and doesn’t produce fruit, so he actually curses it.  

There is only one time in Jesus’ life when you would think he would be angry, but he isn’t. Not at all. On trial and on the cross. They beat him. They spit on him. They falsely accuse him. Still, Mark says he was silent. He didn’t say a word.  

Where is the outrage? Where is the anger at this? The first thing we’d all say is that it happened a long time ago. There is no need. Still, there is something more here. You watch Peter after Jesus’ death, or Stephen, or Paul. They aren’t mad. They aren’t angry.  

There is something far deeper going on. Jesus is transforming anger and wrath itself.  

 In the garden of Gethsemane, before the trial and death, he said, “Take this cup from me. But no, okay, I’ll drink the cup.” (Luke 22:42) What’s the cup? Everywhere in the Old Testament the cup is the cup of God’s anger. The cup of anger is God’s anger we deserve. On the cross Jesus not only took our anger which he did not deserve, but he also took the anger we deserve. He took the wrath of God that should have been poured out on us.  

A neat, not perfect example of how this matters comes from another pastor. He tells about two women he counseled once. Both had teenage sons. Both had husbands who were being lousy fathers. Because of the lousy fathering – and probably other reasons, the sons were starting to get in trouble with the law. 

Both the wives were really mad at their husbands. I counseled them to forgive. The wife who had the worst husband did, and the wife who had the husband who wasn’t nearly that bad couldn’t do it. Why? Because for her the most important thing in her entire life was her son’s love. If her son loved her, then everything was fine. If her son didn’t love her, she didn’t even want to live. She believed in God, but God’s love was an abstract concept. 

The other woman could say something like, God really does love me. I’m ticked at this whole situation. I’m upset at my husband. The most important thing in my life, is God’s love. My son broke rules, he broke laws. He is getting the punishment he deserves. There isn’t anything in me better than my husband. This is clearly an example of God’s grace. God’s wrath has fallen on Jesus. What he did is so awesome, so incredible. I can forgive my husband.  

The other woman, I don’t know exactly what she was saying, but I imagine she was saying something like, I’m ticked at my husband. He has messed up my son. He has failed my son. He has messed up our lives. I’m more angry at that than I am at my son who has broken rules and laws. She never even thought, God actually does punish rule breakers. He actually was angry at his own Son. She never had the courage to confront them.  

Even if you don’t believe in God, it’s nice to think that any God would be a forgiving God. Certainly he’ll forgive me, he’ll accept me, and welcome me. He'll even do the same for other people.  

But if that’s all God is for you, then love will never be real.  

The gospel says that God has poured out more wrath on Jesus than you could ever imagine and he has raised Jesus up to a higher glory and honor than you could ever imagine. Your anger is nothing compared to the anger that Jesus has already endured. Whatever amount of anger you have for anything in this life he already has absorbed in himself.  

If you see Jesus Christ taking the wrath and rage at infinite cost to himself, then you see the ultimate strike to deal with all the abuse, the lieing, and the cheating in life. He loved sinners and hated the sin. Now he is a Lord and King with more power, glory, and honor then you can ever imagine. If you are melted by the knowledge, stunned into silence by how he responded to our anger, then when other people wrong you, you can do the same. You can say, “Hey, I’ve been wronged, but I wronged God, and at infinite cost, he changed my anger to the deepest love.” 

Anger can be okay, but beware its source and results. Let’s have courage to confront.  

Action 

Can we do this together?  

Let’s recognize wrath and we’ll gain the courage to confront  

I have had my own problems with anger. I’m not sure...I’ve heard a few younger guys say, “I don’t get angry that often and I’m glad for it.” I think most younger guys are angry a lot.  

Anger can be okay, but beware its source and results. Let’s have courage to confront.  

The Good Life: Integrity and honesty

Proverbs 10:9-21

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
    but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.

10 Whoever winks maliciously causes grief,
    and a chattering fool comes to ruin.

11 The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life,
    but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

12 Hatred stirs up conflict,
    but love covers over all wrongs.

13 Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning,
    but a rod is for the back of one who has no sense.

14 The wise store up knowledge,
    but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.

15 The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,
    but poverty is the ruin of the poor.

16 The wages of the righteous is life,
    but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.

17 Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life,
    but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.

18 Whoever conceals hatred with lying lips
    and spreads slander is a fool.

19 Sin is not ended by multiplying words,
    but the prudent hold their tongues.

20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver,
    but the heart of the wicked is of little value.

21 The lips of the righteous nourish many,
    but fools die for lack of sense.

Listening guide

Get a little more integrity

Everyone lives with a deep conflict between what we profess and practice.

• “a chattering fool comes to ruin” 

• “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value”

• “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life” (10:11) 

• “The lips of the righteous nourish many” (10:21)  

Whole lives mean we profess and practice the same thing. 

Sermon

I planted a hydrangea for my wife with my kids this mother’s day.   

For years, I’ve resisted. My wife would say things like, “I’d like a hydrangea. Can we get a hydrangea? Wouldn’t a hydrangea be nice?” I’d say, no. I’d say, they look nice but they’re a huge mess. The bring bees. And then this year I said, yes, let’s get one.  

I’m trying to get better at saying, “Let me think about it. Give me some time.”  

What I love is saying, “Yes, let’s do it” and then do it right away. The kids say, can we have ice cream. Let’s do it! Excitement everywhere. “Can you pray for us?” Sure. “Got some time to talk?” Get to listen well, see the pleasure and delight.  

Adventure  

That’s the promise today. If you and I live with integrity, we’ll bring delight to the people around us.Proverbs opens today saying, “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely”. Integrity does so many things for your life – joy, excitement, celebration, security.  

We’ve said, let’s accept correction and experience delight. We’ve said, Be humble and you’ll get more than you deserve. People who give freely have security.  

Let me help you do those things. Brene Brown says that integrity is “you choose to practice your values rather than simply professing them.” Let’s do that.  

Discover  

We way underestimate the challenge of saying what we want and then doing it. Sometimes we have to say things like “Just tell the truth”, “be honest”, or “let your yes be yes and your no be no.” I think what we all experience is so much harder. Jesus gives us this example of two sons. 

When you read these two sons (change slide), you’ve got to put aside “right”. Jesus tells us of a dad and his two sons. He asks the first to go to work. He says no and later goes. The other says yes and then doesn’t go. Jesus praises the first. I think most of us say, “wait, what about the third”.  

We imagine the third son, the ideal son. The one who says, “yes dad, I’d love to chop down that tree for you and then I’ll log it, then split the logs and stack them right there next to the fireplace.” Okay that doesn’t happen anymore. More likely, yes dad, I’ll actually make sure the bathroom light is turned off when I leave it. But that’s not Jesus’ point.  

Jesus is saying, you’re right, there should be an ideal son. There should be a perfect son who always does the right thing. We’ll get to that later. He is saying, let me tell you the two ways you can mess integrity up.  

The first way, the first son, he tells dad “no”. This is a picture of irreligion. We say, “let me do what I want to do. You can’t tell me what to do with my life.” While we might say this to friends or family or a boss, Jesus is pointing out, look, ultimately, everyone of us says no to God an awful lot. We do it all the time in our lives. That’s not Jesus main concern though, is it?  

That's the crazy thing! The second way to fail integrity, the second son, he tells his dad “yes” but then he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t follow through. This is a picture of religiosity or legalism. It’s saying, I just want to make you happy. If I agree to what you say, will that make you happy God? Will you accept me God?I'm going to say yes and give it my best effort, how does that sound?  

This is the kind of thing religious people do all the time. Jesus is not so concerned with fixing everyone else. He is saying, do you have your stuff together? Can I give us an example? 

One of the things that bugged Martin Luther was all the statues and relics in the churches of the 1500s. Relics were items supposedly left over from religious heroes long dead, like slivers of the cross. He told people, why do you hold on to these things? Why do you revere and adore them? They don’t rescue you.  

What he never said was, destroy it all. Destroy the relics, destroy the statues, and destroy the churches. He never told people to get rid of the public buildings or damage the items that weren’t theirs in anyway. When someone else started telling people to do that, he left hiding and preached some of his most famous sermons. He said, “[if one] forces the issue, it follows that those blaspheme who do not understand and who act only because of the coercion of the law and not with a free conscience. Their idea that they can please God with works becomes a real idol and a false assurance in the heart. Such legalism results in putting away outward images while filling the heart with idols." (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 40: Church and Ministry II, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 40 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 84–85.) 

Luther was convinced that people couldn’t be compelled to get rid of the relics and the churches. That was like saying to them, “say yes!” “You’ve got to say yes! And then we’re going to make you do it. That’s the only way God will be happy.  

The problem is much worse than we imagine. I think so many of us say, if I just learn to say no to things, then I’ll actually be able to do what I say I want to do. That is something we should say. We need to practice that. That barely gets at the problem.  

Or we say, if I just get more organized and figure out what tasks are really important to me, then I’ll be able to follow up. That’s good. Do that. That only gets started too. The problem is worse than we imagine. Let me share this illustration.  

I've got here some vegetable oil and water. I think it’s pretty common knowledge. If I try to mix these two together, what happens? Will they mix together? No, they won’t. Like this. 

Here is the thing. Everyone lives with a deep conflict between what we profess and practice. That’s our first take away today. Even the people who have the most integrated, the most put together lives. They live with a deep conflict.  

Proverbs has two great proverbs for it:  

• Twice in these verses he says, “a chattering fool comes to ruin”. That means the problem is someone’s mouth.  So we start to think, the problem is what we say. We just need to shut up.  

• But then he goes “Proverbs 10:19 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value. What’s the problem? It's not just the tongue of the foolish person. It’s the heart. Remember in the ancient world, the heart is not what you feel. It’s who you are. 

It’s true that everything comes from who you are. It’s also true that your tongue has incredible power to direct you. Our identity and our mouths drive a conflict. Everyone lives with a deep conflict between what we profess and practice. And I would suggest to you, that there is only one thing to do.  

We need to add something to make them make mix. Oil and water only mix if I add something. Common ones are milk or soap. Yes, I know, there is some really cool science now that breaks down oil into such tiny particles that it can actually mix, but that is kind of beside the point. Normal people, we need to add something. 

There are a couple of neat proverbs that show us what we need to add. For example,  

• “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life” (10:11)  

• “The lips of the righteous nourish many” (10:21)  

Proverbs points out, we need a mouth that brings life. We need lips that nourish. I bet you, like me, know some people who have nourished you. But ultimately, not many. Most people don’t make me say, “hooray”! Most people don’t make me celebrate. Most people can’t hug me after a bad and really convince me that it will be okay.  

I would put to you that ultimately, this is Jesus. I don’t think you’ll find anyone else who could say, “this is what I promise you I will do” and actually did it. Even the people alive with Jesus noted his integrity.They noted his ability to bring life to other people. The religious teachers one time said, “teacher we know that you are a man of integrity and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth”. How did he do so well keeping his professing and practicing together?  

The basis of his claim is that he is both God and man. He is fully God and fully man. He was never mixed up about it. It’s not like he was random oil particles floating around in water. He didn’t have a God finger her and a man toe there. There was nothing mixed up about Jesus.  

That means, when you say, “I believe in Jesus as my Savior and Lord”, you are finally taking something into your life that has its act together. You profess anything else, you practice anything else. I guarantee you that at some point in your life, where you are going to have to deal with conflict. Not just out there, but inside yourself. But do you know what you get with Jesus?  

You get the one guy who could resolve the conflict. Who could bring two things that don’t go together,together. You got the one guy in the world who could bring truth and love together. He is the one guy who could say, Sin deserves death. Sin must be punished. God hates sin and the sinful people who carry it around. He wants nothing more than to drive it from himself. At the same time he could say, God loves the world. God loves real people. God loves this world he has made. He wants nothing more than to be with this world.  

Look at this. Look at what Jesus does on the cross. The cross means God’s law cannot be broken. God’s holiness and righteousness have to be satisfied. He must keep his word. At the same time the cross means we are pardoned. We are forgiven despite our sins. We are embraced and accepted.  

The moment Jesus died, it’s not just God’s truth or God’s love were satisfied. At that moment, both the truth and the love of God were totally and completely satisfied.  

The cross brought them together. I know that sometimes they seem to be in conflict. “But if I tell the truth, I don’t know if that’s loving, or if I really …” In other words, they seem to be in conflict, they but heads, but they aren’t, and when the cross comes into the center of your life, they won’t be, either. 

One of the best examples of this, its also one of the worst examples of breaking integrity in the Bible. I was reminded of this during my devotions the other day. After Jesus ascended, the Christians began to integrate the uncircumcised Gentiles into the Christian church. They had always accepted the converts who got circumcised, but there was an event with a man named Cornelius. Then they began to welcome the uncircumcised.  

This is how Peter lived. Peter was one of the most important followers of Jesus. Definitely a guy showing people the way. He welcomed the uncircumcised Gentiles and ate with them. One day some visitors came. Peter was concerned they wouldn’t accept him. He felt the conflict. And he stopped eating with the Gentiles.  

Finally the apostle Paul came. Basically he said, “What are you doing? Faith in Jesus Christ saves, not doing the right thing.” Then he went on to say, “if you find yourself with the people who say “no” to keeping all of God’s law, you’re not breaking God’s law. All you’re doing is proving that truth and love are satisfied in Jesus.” And Peter changed.  

Whole lives. Whole lives mean we can profess and practice the same thing. That’s what you and I get with the cross. Whole lives.  

Action 

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Whole lives mean we profess and practice the same thing. That's wisdom for a good life.